“iGarmentJOS accurately processes order information, which saves time for each stage of work; iWorkPMS helps to manage production progress in real-time; the ideal combination between the two allows us to shorten the lead-time.”

— Johnny Yip

C.I. Manager

Tien Sung Group

Company overview

Tien Sung group (commonly known as “TSG”) was founded in Hong Kong in 1967, focusing on manufacturing sportswear for top international sports brands such as Adidas, New Balance, Puma etc., altogether the annual production quantity reaches up to 10 million items. Their headquarter is located in Hong Kong, and they have factories based in Yunpu, Heyuan and Cambodia with over 5000 workers. In recent years, TSG has endeavoured to become an outstanding supplier which provides garment technology and services. As early as 2002, TSG has already utilized iGarmentJOS Job Order System to process order information accurately and quickly, as well as using iWorkPMS Production Management System later on to real-time monitor production progress to boost up enterprise efficiency.

1. Real-time mastering order information

Given that the current fashion consumption pattern is dynamic, requesting “more styles than quantity” in an order becomes the norm, whilst requiring garment businesses to shorten lead times. Under this harsh condition, TSG reckoned digitalization is the only way to increase overall enterprise efficiency. “Clients usually request very short lead-times, if we solely rely on managing orders manually, it would be difficult to fulfil their requests. Through iGarmentJOS, we can promptly manage order information, saving time on each work progress in order to shorten lead-time. Meanwhile, it helps us to precisely check the current material inventory before purchasing more. Through one click, we can reserve corresponding materials for an order. This avoids over purchasing or mispurchasing. Materials distribution, retrieve, inventory information, purchase quantity & prices etc. can be clearly viewed, thus the cost can be effectively controlled,” said Mr Yip, C.I.Manager of TSG.

2. Automatic import of image/ text data to save time

Due to a large demand for orders and the vast selection of styles, order information and material requirements are relatively complex. Therefore, an add-on function of iGamentJOS - Partner Enabler which is a smart data-importing tool, is used to import PDF or Excel format of orders and style information in bulks. This significantly reduces time in manual operations to avoid human errors and greatly increases job order efficiency.

3. Worry-free cloud service for enterprises

TSG has been using iGarment Cloud Service for 15 years and they have truly experienced its values to their company. “Employees had doubts when we first decided to incorporate the Cloud system into our company. However, our boss actively encouraged employees to use it and promoted its benefits. Gradually, they started to accept it, now they even rely on iGarmentJOS to implement their work! iGarment’s service team works very hard with our IT employees to monitor the system usage and provide corresponding training programmes to ensure the system can run smoothly in the company.” said Mr Yip. He also very much agrees with the way iGarmentJOS Cloud Service works, because it saves time and costs on server setup, IT expertise, peripheral devices etc. “iGarment possess a world-class data centre to encrypt and maintain clients’ data and to ensure system stability so that we can concentrate on managing our own business.”

4. Achieving management transparency

TSG uses iWorkPMS Production Management System in both factories in Yunpu and Heyuan, achieving a transparent factory management. “Before using iWorkPMS, the production quantity from each production line, semi-finished items and finished items relied largely on workers’ self-report from each department. Not only was it time-consuming, it was also prone to human errors. We could hardly get hold of production data and even harder to detect bottleneck problems.” said Mr Yip. After incorporating iWorkPMS into our system, lead-time for each production stage can be accurately estimated; production quantity can also be precisely and clearly calculated in real-time. This essentially shortens lead-times and enables monitoring production efficiency from each worker which helps to set up an effective reward and punishment system. Mr Yip also shared an applied case of using iWorkPMS to monitor outsourced factory. “TSG works with some outsourced factories such as printing factories and we used to have difficulties monitoring their delivery time. Due to the lack of materials, downtime was very common, which wasted plenty of time and costs. Later, we implemented iWorkPMS in the receiving and dispatching department which connects with the outsourced factories, which helps to estimate their delivery time. Discussion in regards to downtime and general improvement on performance can be made effectively in support of data which significantly increases productivity.”